Clause 36
Greater London Authority Bill
6:00 pm
Siobhain McDonagh (PPS (Rt Hon John Reid, Secretary of State), Home Office; Mitcham and Morden, Labour)
I, too, rise to support the amendments tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Regent’s Park and Kensington, North, but in doing so I find myself in a strange position. I do not necessarily see myself as a close political ally of the Mayor, or indeed as somebody who would normally oppose the Government’s provisions. My concern is that the Government may have backed away from their new Labour credentials, which are about public service reform, tackling issues of concern, and standing up to the establishment. The provisions in the Bill do not do those things and do not follow the tradition that has been incredibly successful in the Government.
Recycling and environmental issues are not about nice little photo opportunities, feeling good about things, or somehow achieving an increase in the opinion polls; they are about the future for us and our children. If we are serious about this, we must start now and press now. It is all very well wanting to tax people’s flights or to restrict people’s quality of life, but by recycling and changing how we get rid of our waste, we can make substantial differences that benefit everybody and improve the quality of everybody’s life.
In 2005-06, London produced almost 1 million tonnes of non-household waste. Only 9 per cent. of it was recycled, compared with England’s figure of 30 per cent., and 22 of the 37 London waste authorities failed to meet their recycling targets. I have a great deal of respect for Sutton’s traditions and for its record, but this is not about being the best but about being the worst. It is about lifting everybody up, because the problem has an impact on all of us.
I was lucky enough to sit on the 1998 Standing Committee that scrutinised the great new Labour measure to introduce an executive Mayor for London. I believed that an executive Mayor would bring about a significant changes to London by virtue of his or her powers to do so. Irrespective of what party the executive Mayor for London represents, they can bring a substantial change in waste management in London and better all our environments. Even more importantly, they can avert the impending problem of being fined because we cannot do enough with our waste to prevent it going to landfill.